Patriots bye week will be working vacation

Thursday

Oct 20, 2011 at 6:00 AM

The Patriots officially entered their bye week yesterday afternoon, pretty much saying goodbye to football for the next five days. That kind of extended stretch devoid of watching film, positional group meetings, supervised workouts, and practice, practice and more practice is, as Wes Welker put it, “unheard of” around here.

By Rich Garven TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

The Patriots officially entered their bye week yesterday afternoon, pretty much saying goodbye to football for the next five days.

That kind of extended stretch devoid of watching film, positional group meetings, supervised workouts, and practice, practice and more practice is, as Wes Welker put it, “unheard of” around here.

Not that the players didn’t like what they were hearing.

“It’s just so much every day of football, football, football,” said Welker, whose plans include returning to his native Oklahoma. “So it’s kind of nice to get a few days to kind of relax and spend time with family and friends.”

The league dictates when teams get their week off during the season. In recent years, the Patriots have had their bye fall on Weeks 6, 10, 4, 8 and 5.

Considering they’re 10 games into a 20-game slate (preseason included) and about halfway through a five-month stretch that began in late July when training camp opened, this is an ideal time for a break, one that can refresh the body both mentally and physically.

“I can’t emphasize enough how it gives us a chance to get healthy,” special teams captain Matthew Slater said. “We’ve got guys banged up and that’s just the nature of the league. Everybody has guys banged up. I guess a bye would come at a good time for anybody once you get this far into the season.”

The Patriots don’t play again until Oct. 30, when they travel to Pittsburgh, and Slater indicted he’d be spending some of his free time over the weekend getting a head start on studying the Steelers.

While Welker planned to decompress, he also stressed players weren’t about to embark on a bender.

“It’s not like spring break when we were in college,” Welker said, his voice tinted with his trademark dry wit. “Everybody still has to work out and still do some of those things, but we’re not out there running routes and those other things we do a daily basis. You’re making sure you’re still getting a lot of rest and a lot of sleep and not staying out late and really take advantage of the time.”

That motion was seconded by Rob Gronkowski.

“I’m just chilling,” the sophomore tight end said. “I’m going to work out, get my body right. I’ve definitely got some bruises, some dings and stuff. If you’re going to get stronger, you have to get back in the weight room and get some lifting in. Get the body right, that’s my plan.”

Coach Bill Belichick met with the entire team in the morning for a quick debriefing prior to their release. He reminded the players to enjoy themselves, get in some lifting, and rest up so they’re ready to go when practice resumes Tuesday.

And?

“Stay out of trouble,” Gronkowski noted.

Slater, a fourth-year pro who — along with Jerod Mayo — is all that’s left from the Patriots’ 2008 draft class, didn’t foresee any problems in that regard.

“I think this team does a good job of policing itself,” Slater said. “We have a lot of responsible men on this team who realize that, bye week or not, we’re still in the middle of football season. We have a lot of goals that we want to accomplish.

“(Being) 5-1 is not going to get us anything. I think everyone is well aware of that. We’re not letting our guard down and relaxing. We’re just taking the time to get healthy.”

Belichick also met separately with the rookies for about 40 minutes, something he does regularly during the season. The idea is to help ease their transition from the NCAA to the NFL and reinforce the so-called Patriot Way of doing things.

“Whether it’s the start of training camp, beginning of the regular season, bye week, we spend a lot of time with the rookies,” Belichick said. “We try to help them acclimate themselves to a new area, a different working environment, a different team structure than whatever structure they were on before — not that anybody else’s is better or worse than ours, I’m not saying that, but ours is what it is.

“They have to understand it and be able to utilize the opportunities and tools that we give them to try to help improve themselves on and off the field, in and out of football. It’s a pretty extensive thing.”

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